---
title: 'A Guide To Starting A Manga Collection In 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=PqPLBQbqcoQ'
video_id: 'PqPLBQbqcoQ'
date: 2026-06-15
duration_sec: 0
---

# A Guide To Starting A Manga Collection In 2026

> Source: [A Guide To Starting A Manga Collection In 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PqPLBQbqcoQ)

## Summary

This video offers a comprehensive guide for beginners on starting a manga collection, covering everything from choosing series and bookshelves to saving money and avoiding common mistakes. The creator shares personal experiences and tips for building a collection sustainably.

### Key Points

- **Know Your Manga Preferences** [00:38] — Before buying, research the series to ensure you actually like it. Avoid impulse buys based on hype, as the creator regrets blind-buying Promised Neverland and Demon Slayer.
- **How to Evaluate a Series** [02:29] — Read a few chapters online, watch YouTube reviews, or ask communities (like the creator's Discord) to gauge if a series is worth collecting.
- **Choosing a Bookshelf** [03:11] — Start with a budget-friendly shelf ($20 from Target/Walmart) and upgrade as your collection grows. The creator recommends investing in a good shelf like an IKEA one for $70.
- **Take It Slow** [04:18] — Avoid buying entire series at once. Collecting slowly prevents burnout, makes the hobby more enjoyable, and ensures you actually read what you buy.
- **Start with Two Series** [06:30] — Focus on one ongoing series (to prolong the journey) and one completed series (to have consistent availability). This keeps the collection manageable and interesting.
- **Single Volumes vs. Omnibuses** [08:18] — Omnibuses save money but have lower paper quality and lack individual covers. For a collection, single volumes are recommended. Exceptions exist, like the Vagabond omnibuses with connecting spines.
- **Deluxe Editions and Box Sets** [10:52] — Deluxe hardcovers (e.g., Berserk) are worth the investment for display and quality. Box sets bundle volumes at a discount, saving money (e.g., One Piece box sets saved the creator hundreds).
- **Where to Buy Manga** [12:44] — Online retailers like Amazon, Crunchyroll, and eBay often have cheaper prices than local bookstores. Look for sales and secondhand deals to save money.

### Conclusion

Building a manga collection is a rewarding hobby if done thoughtfully. Take it slow, choose series you love, and use money-saving strategies like box sets and online shopping to avoid overspending.

## Transcript

so you're thinking about starting a
manga collection maybe you were walking
by the manga section in your local
bookstore and thought hey I want to
check out some of these series maybe an
anime you were watching that you were so
passionate about just ended abruptly and
now you want to know what happens next
or maybe you watch some guy on YouTube
read an entire manga series in a week
and you were thinking wow I I kind of
want manga now whatever the reason is
this is the video for you I've been
collecting manga as a hobby for a while
now I have over 500 volumes in my
collection in this video I'm going to
teach you about all the knowledge I've
gathered over the years all the
money-saving tips and money wasting m
mistakes that I've made and how to avoid
them so that hopefully by the end of
this video you can get a better idea of
how to build a pretty cool manga
collection okay so to start this off
what kind of manga do you like do you
even know there's an incredibly large
amount of manga genres to read from and
within those genres there's an even
larger amount of mangas to choose the
last thing you want to happen is you go
to the store and you buy a volume or
you're surfing the web and you order
something you spend all this time
getting your hands on a specific volume
just to realize that you don't even like
it and you wish you didn't even get it I
personally suggest before you make the
decision to purchase a manga volume to
go over a couple of ground roles is the
series actually good or been given
Praise by people in the community do you
actually like the series or is it just a
hot new thing right now and you're just
going along with the hype is this series
something you could see yourself
revisiting in the future cuz remember
this stuff isn't digital code that you
could just buy and forget about just
like the hundreds of games that you
probably bought during the steam winter
sale that are just rotting away in your
library never going to be touched you're
not going to play these games I know you
these are physical things that you're
buying probably going to buy a lot of
too this stuff it sticks with you so
make sure you're sure about your
purchase before getting something I
personally own all of promis Neverland
and Demon Slayer and I'll be honest I'm
not the most thrilled about having these
in my collection both of these series I
mainly just blind bought because there
was a lot of hype going on around the
anime at the time I definitely took a
risk and I'm not trying to say that
these two series are bad they're just
personally not for me after reading a
couple of the volumes I just realized I
wasn't really too into it like everybody
else and that's okay I do still have
them on my collection cuz they look nice
but do wish if I could go back in time
that I would have spent the money on
something else that I would have cared
about more and I know it could be tough
sometimes to figure out if a series is
actually worth it there's some series
that are incredibly popular and there's
so many people online glazing it and
then others that only have one singular
Reddit post from a dude 7 years ago
named deleted user saying it's the
greatest or worst thing in the world
thank you deleted user for your
contribution who are you judging the
quality of a series can be really tough
sometimes so here's a couple of things
that you could do number one try to find
the series online try to read a couple
of chapters of it and see if you
actually like it do you like the
characters do you like the artwork do
you like the Direction the Story is
going in if not don't get it number two
you could watch different YouTube videos
on people who actually check out manga
here's a couple of creators that I think
are pretty cool and could give you some
pretty good advice on what you should
check out number three you could just
ask people online in a bunch of
different communities I don't personally
know any communities that I could
recommend to you to go and check out but
I will say I do have a Discord server
with a ton of people who really like
manga in it so if you're looking to ask
some people who know a thing or two
about manga jump into the server and go
ask them I'm almost positive they're
going to help you out if you're
interested in joining I got a link down
below for you to check out and while
you're at it hit the Subscribe button
man what kind of bookshelf are you going
to get this is also something you kind
of have to think about cuz you don't
want to just buy a bunch of manga and
then have nowhere to put it I mean
actually you could I don't I don't
really know how you live your life I
personally like putting my books on a
bookshelf so that's what we're going to
talk about over the years my collection
has changed a lot I've gotten so many
different bookshelves here's what I
could recommend if you're looking for
something on a budget go for something
on a budget my first couple of
bookshelves were like $20 ones I bought
at my local Target or Walmart these did
the job just fine were they the best
quality in the world no but they at
least held books and that's exactly what
I needed them for over the years I
slowly started buying more and more
manga and my collection started getting
bigger and bigger and bigger so that's
why I have these three giant bookshelves
right behind me these two right over
here were a gift and then this one I
bought at Ikea for $70 now maybe $70 is
is crazy for you and you can't really
justify buying that for your collection
and that is completely okay for me
personally it just made sense plus I
don't think it's ever a bad idea to
invest in a bookshelf because
bookshelves can hold more than just
books they could hold other things this
is getting really obvious find something
cool find something in your budget and
just go with it okay so let's say you do
have an idea of the type of manga you
want to start collecting should you just
go all in and Splurge a bunch of money
on buying the entire series no it's
probably really cool to see a giant
collection like this and be in inspired
and motivated and want to go to the
store and spend a bunch of money to get
something quite similar to this at least
that's how I was when I was first
collecting but honestly the best piece
of advice I can give to you is just to
take it slow that's currently where my
mindset is at with collecting manga and
I feel like it's changed everything I
collect manga at a lot slower of a pace
now for a couple of reasons number one
it's because it's easier to manage and
keep track of everything that you have
and number two it just makes it so that
the hobby never becomes stale for I
found that the act of prolonging the
manga collection construction actually
allowed for me to prolong the journey
make me enjoy it a lot more because it
prevented me from ever doing too much
and then getting burnt out also you
should make sure you leave yourself
enough time to read the Manga I found
that whenever I have spent a bunch of
money on manga like I've splurged a
bunch on a giant manga order I would get
so excited that I had like 50 new
volumes 60 new volumes and I'd end up
not reading some of them as a result
there was just so many options to now
choose from to read that I'd end up
forgetting about the ones that maybe I
didn't care about as much I personally
have a lot going on in my day and I have
a lot of manga so one of my best
strategies for getting through my
collection is just reading manga right
before I go to sleep and speaking of
sleep I want to take a second to thank
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you man to sleep let's continue the
video now I feel like you should have a
pretty good idea of the types of mangas
that you want the type of bookshelves
that You' be putting them on and how
fast you should collecting your series
now let's talk about the type of series
you should actually be collecting for
anyone just starting their manga
collection I would always recommend to
start off with just focusing on two
series one ongoing one and one that's
already been completed now you might be
wondering why why would I do that well
first of all committing to only two
series to start off your manga
collection depending on what series they
are of course is actually a pretty
simple task please for the love of God
do not be the person who starts off
their collection with 10 different
volume ones of 10 different series
they're planning on collecting because
your collection is just going to look
messy you're not going to know which
series you should start investing your
money in first to actually complete
first and it's just going to be a lot
and then you're probably just going to
not do anything and just be left with a
bunch of volume ones I get it there's a
bunch of series out there that look
really cool and you want to collect them
but when you start doing this you're
going to start killing your own
motivation and momentum manga
collections are really fun once you
actually start seeing some results it is
a lot more filling of having 10 volumes
of the same series as opposed to 10
volumes of completely different Series
so anyway getting back to it why should
you collect one ongoing and one
completed series well the ongoing Series
has the purpose of prolonging the
journey typically new volumes for a
series take about 2 months to be
released which is actually really great
the ongoing series is going to have the
purpose of bringing you back into the
hobby whenever you go to the bookstore
and see that a new volume has been
released you're going to get pretty
excited and buy it and slowly and slowly
as you're doing this you're just getting
one step closer to completing the entire
thing now I also recommend collecting a
series that's completed now because it's
going to keep the collection interesting
now whenever you go to a bookstore
you're probably always going to be able
to find a volume that you actually need
a lot of these completed series just
kind of rot on the shelves a lot of
people are only going to the bookstore
to buy the stuff that's currently being
released so a lot of these older volumes
they're always there so might as well go
and pick them up okay now let's say you
know the series that you want to collect
but there's one issue you go to the
bookstore and you're going to start
collecting them but there's different
versions of the book which one do you
get this right here is volumes 85 86 and
887 of one piece and this right here is
volumes 85 86 and 87 of One Piece just
it it kind of looks a little bit
different this right here is three
single manga volumes and this right here
is an Omnibus that is a combination of
these three volumes this is a case-by
casee scenario not every single manga
you're going to be collecting is going
to have these variety of ways to collect
them but when you run into a scenario
like this which one should you get so if
you wanted to only collect the single
volumes each one would cost you about
$12 at at the moment whereas with the
omnibuses I believe they cost around $17
so if you do the math if you're
collecting the omnibuses you're going to
save a lot more money but should you
personally I would say especially with
the paperback versions of the omnibuses
these are always a pass in my eyes
unless you're purely collecting just to
catch up with the story itself I don't
like how these look the volume overall
is made with a lot cheaper of a paper
quality compared to the regular
individual volumes plus I'm a guy who
just really likes manga covers and this
this is is not fun to look at this is
really boring if you're looking to just
catch up on a story and you're on a
budget then omnibuses are definitely the
way to go but if you're actually looking
to grow a manga collection spend the
extra couple of dollars and buy the
single volumes I think it'll be more
worth it in the long run also oh my God
I almost forgot about this these down
over here are my vegab bomb volumes and
they're three in one omnibuses now I
just said you shouldn't really be going
for these and I know um it's a little
contradictory but I think these are
really cool cuz when you put them
together they have a connecting spot
it's a tiny little detail that I just
personally really liked and made me go
the extra mile to actually go out and
collect all of these but I did run into
a big issue om many buses as I said are
cheaper in print quality and this book
while I was reading it um the pages the
pages fell out of the book
so yeah look at this this is this is
horrible there's a couple of solutions
for this number one I could figure out
how to rebind the book but I'm not going
to do that or number two I could also
invest in a different version of vegab
bom that just released see not only do
mangas have single volumes and omnibuses
but they also have hard cover volumes
like this right here for berserk now
vegabond also has one of these that is
releasing at the moment I already own
all of vegabond and read it all so I
don't really feel like spending the
extra 50ish dollars just to get them in
hard cover volumes I don't know it just
it doesn't make sense to me at the
moment hard cover Deluxe editions what
do I think about them they're pretty
cool I would definitely say if there is
a series you are checking out and they
have a deluxe edition
I think you should go the extra mile and
actually just purchase it I do really
think these are worth it especially with
series with Incredible art berserk for
example the artwork is amazing and dude
let me just tell you whenever I'm
showing off my manga collection to
someone they are always looking at the
hard covers first these catch people's
eyes when they're on a shelf and for
good reason they look awesome V Saga up
here these are hard covers they look
pretty cool JoJo's Bizarre Adventure up
here they're hard covers they also look
pretty cool while we're on the subject
of different versions of mangas that you
could buy let's not forget about
the box sets I have a decent amount of
them and I leave them all up on top of
my collection cuz I just think they look
nice the first 70 volumes of one piece
that is currently in my collection was
all brought to me because of box sets
these things are awesome maybe some of
you guys out there don't really know
what a box set is so let me explain it
really quickly let's say there's a
series with 24 volumes instead of buying
the 24 volumes individually for $12 each
a box set will bundle them all together
and sometimes be at an even cheaper
price so you could buy the series in
both for less money that's pretty cool
so as opposed to spending over $1,000
for over a 100 volumes of one piece I
spent around5 six maybe $700 which is
still a lot yes but keep in mind that
the remaining volumes from volume 71 all
the way up to 107 I didn't buy with a
box set and there is a new box set that
currently released for One Piece box set
number four but it wasn't out at the
time when I was collecting the entire
series there's a ton of different box
sets out there for Naruto bleach
assassination classroom Dragon Ball if
there's a series you really enjoy and
that you want to commit to I do think
you should spend the extra money and buy
a box set plus when that box set is in
your hands and you get to look at all
the volumes oh my God the dopamine Rush
is insane saving money so box sets are
the first thing I could definitely
recommend for when someone asks me how
they could easily save money on manga
buying manga at your local bookstore
it's pretty nice but wow is it expensive
this is actually the primary way I buy
my manga the only reason I do it is
because I have a YouTube channel so
manga shopping videos are kind of
interesting and people like watching
them so I the bullet and instead of
buying the manga online for a cheaper
price I spend the extra couple of
dollars just to make an interesting
video for you guys that's primarily how
I buy my manga now back before I had
this YouTube channel it was a bit
different manga volumes can definitely
be purchased for a lot cheaper if you
buy them online now there's a couple of
options you can do for this you could
probably go on eBay or some kind of
marketplace to buy manga off somebody
else because honestly some people just
don't really want their collection
anymore and they're just trying to get
rid of these volumes so you can end up
getting getting a bunch of books for a
pretty good deal now I've never done it
so I don't really want to give you any
tips or strategies because it would just
be a lie I've never done it before so
why would I tell you what to do when I
literally have no knowledge on it
another thing you can do which I have
done is look at websites that sell manga
the big website I used to use back in
the day was right stuff anime but now
they've been bought out by crunchy roll
and crunchy roll I have purchased off of
their site they do sometimes have pretty
cool sales for manga so I would always
keep an eye out for that another website
that I use is just Amazon Amazon is
pretty quick at delivering your manga
and also sometimes the prices are
cheaper than MSRP there's a bunch of
different sites out there that sell
manga or you could just join different
discords or communities and just ask
people if anyone is selling anything I
do get lucky though sometimes my local
bookstore will have deals like buy two
get one free on manga or buy one get one
free on manga that's a lot of the stuff
I wanted to share with you hopefully you
found something in this video helpful
subscribe to the channel and go watch
some of my other videos goodbye guys